I took several rides in Google’s Waymo robotaxi. This is a short video of the experience, which is great, almost flawless. One problem is that it gets boring really fast.
About half the time during my trip, I used Uber or Lyft instead of a Waymo, and I met a professional dancer, a retired chef, a compliance officer, a criminal justice expert, an Amazon truck driver, and a painter.
I had really fun conversations that touched on “AI” and dance music, the best old school restaurants in town, the private equity fundraising process, cybersecurity, privacy, more “AI” and so on. As a bonus, almost all of the conversations included some useful, local information about the city.
None of the robotaxi rides had any of this, serendipity was nonexistent. The robot feels friendly, sure, but that’s about it. The longer the ride, the more boring it gets.